If Albert Einstein was a youth today, there’s a good chance he would be saddled with an Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) diagnosis, possibly even Opposition Defiant Disorder (ODD) as well. He ignored his teachers, failed college entrance examinations several times and was hard-pressed in holding down a job.

In ‘Einstein: The Life and Times‘, biographer Ronald Clark argues that Einstein’s problem wasn’t attention deficits at all, but rather a hatred of authoritarian, Prussian influences in school. “The teachers in the elementary school appeared to me like sergeants and in the gymnasium the teachers were like lieutenants,” Einstein once remarked. The fact that he read Kant’s difficult Critique of Pure Reason for pleasure is quite revealing. He also refused to prepare for college admissions out of rebellion to his father’s “unbearable” path of “practical profession.” When he did gain entrance to college, one of his professors chided Einstein, “You have one fault; one can’t tell you anything.” The very characteristics that troubled authorities, were exactly the ones which helped him to excel.

Considering Einstein’s life history, it makes one wonder about the rampant use of ADHD and ODD diagnosis that are plaguing our children and teenagers today. According to the statistical research by Russell Barkley, Ph.D., on average for every 30 children, 1-3 have ADHD. Of these children, 65% have issues with defiance, non-compliance and problems with authority figures, which can manifest as verbal hostility and temper tantrums. It’s estimated that between 1-16% of all American children have ODD. The real question, however, is not how many diagnosis there have been, but rather should we be looking at ADHD and ODD as a mental illness in the first place?

Take ADHD. For these children, sitting still in a classroom — under fluorescent lighting and being bombarded with EMFs from cell phones and wi-fi — completely removed from the natural world and pumped full of preservatives, artificial additives, GMOs, pesticides and sugar, is simply impossible. Their sensitive bodies and minds cannot take the onslaught. Instead of extending outdoor time and cleaning up the diet, recess has been slashed and poor quality food remains the norm. Worse, they are drugged into submission with the likes of Evekeo, Adderall, Concerta and Ritalin — several of which are amphetamines. (For more on this topic, please see: The Fictions Surrounding ADHD and the “Chemical Imbalance” Theory of Mental Illness.)

A 2009 Psychiatric Times article titled “ADHD & ODD: Confronting the Challenges of Disruptive Behavior” reports that “disruptive disorders,” which include attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and opposition defiant disorder (ODD), are the most common mental health problem of children and teenagers. ADHD is defined by poor attention and distractibility, poor self-control and impulsivity, and hyperactivity. ODD is defined as a “a pattern of negativistic, hostile, and defiant behavior without the more serious violations of the basic rights of others that are seen in conduct disorder”; and ODD symptoms include “often actively defies or refuses to comply with adult requests or rules” and “often argues with adults.”

One of the leading mainstream mental health’s authorities on ADHD, psychologist Russell Barkley believes that those afflicted with ADHD are deficient in what he classifies as “rule-governed behavior,” since they are less open to established authorities and not as responsive to positive or negative consequences. Those with ODD also have these so-called deficits. Because of this, it’s exceptionally common for young people to be diagnosed with both ADHD and ODD.

But as Levine rightly observes, “Do we really want to diagnose and medicate everyone with “deficits in rule-governed behavior”?

Some of our greatest freethinkers throughout history were non-conformists and challenged authority. At what point do we simply become a nation of zombies, drugged out on pharmaceuticals, unable to think for ourselves? Americans have become increasingly socialized to associate inattention, anger, anxiety and paralyzing despair with a medical condition, and subsequently rely on medical intervention instead of political remedies. “What better way to maintain the status quo than to view inattention, anger, anxiety, and depression as biochemical problems of those who are mentally ill rather than normal reactions to an increasingly authoritarian society,” said Levine. He believes Americans desperately need anti-authoritarians to question, test and oppose illegitimate authorities and regain trust in their own common sense.

And yet, we’re moving into deeper authoritarian waters by the day. A good example is the newest addition of the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). ODD is actually a new label in the manual, defined as “ongoing pattern of disobedient, hostile and defiant behavior,” where symptoms include negativity, questioning authority, argumentativeness and irritability. ODD joins the ranks of other, newly created mental illnesses —‘disorders’ like arrogance, narcissism, exceptional creativity, cynicism and antisocial tendencies. Keep in mind that over the last 50 years, the manual has been prolific in creating new afflictions, with the total number of ‘mental illness’ classifications rising from 130 to 357.

Another danger is that childhood eccentricities, sometimes inextricable from creativity, might be labeled “disorders” to be “cured.” If 7-year-old Mozart tried composing his concertos today, he might be diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and medicated into barren normality.

In the face of such bizarre and chilling authoritarian mental illness classifications, the famous quote by Jiddu Krishnamurti comes to mind:

It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.

About the author: Carolanne Wright enthusiastically believes if we want to see change in the world, we need to be the change. As a nutritionist, natural foods chef and wellness coach, Carolanne has encouraged others to embrace a healthy lifestyle of organic living, gratefulness and joyful orientation for over 13 years.

Through her website Thrive-Living.net, she looks forward to connecting with other like-minded people from around the world who share a similar vision. You can also follow Carolanne on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

I’m a therapist and I agree. Every time I get a person under @ 30, they have multiple diagnoses about how broken they are, they are either seeking medication or on it. I spoke to one lady who has a grandchild who I’d on 6 different medications on the Autism spectrum, each one trying to fix the “obviously broken” child. And try natural healing and try to encourage a client to hang tight before they use medication and you risk your license. There are obviously things people should be medicated for but most of the rest, is symptom bandaid management…many therapists feel the same. We’Re debilitating and breaking entire generations of children….it’s really scary that when we pass, we will be leaving a mess of people who think they cannot handle life…

I rebelled in high school and at the time I didn’t know why in was that way..but after school was over I educated myself and because my own teacher. .I got into trouble because I hated authority figures plus I seen the dark side of teachers and they’re were only a few out of all of them who really wanted to help students like me..today I’m happy and won’t trade places with anyone and I owe it to the teachers who failed me….. …

I noticed the better I was at each job I was hired to do, lazy people who cuddled up to the boss, even the boss himself with his little buddies, truly incompetent, caused me the most stress, from bullying, slander, button pushing, all for me doing my job well and standing up for myself. It is that right there that created symptoms of mental illness in myself. I was guilty of doing my job well in each of those jobs while defending myself against incompetent leeches to management. I was usually bullied by the alpha male up to his eyeball in incompetence who couldn’t handle hard work and a dose of reality.

You haven’t suffered alone, Andy. As one who has also undergone and endured every bit of the social madness you’ve described, I commend your clarity of thought as it pertains to the primary catalyst behind what you’ve been subjected to, which is the intuitive, as well as intellectual incompetence of bullies, while I would say that the resentment and antagonistic mindset owned by far too many is a mere symptom of an adverse social structure that imprudently compels competition, which by nature inspires opposition, as opposed to one in which fostered is the spirit of comradery.

Wow…. What ever happened to ” Walk to the beat of your own drum”. What, now I’m mental….???! Out of the Box non conforming …. Now I’m crazy??? Give me a F* ing break…. What I suppose the freedom of Hippies of the 60’s were all mentally ill. Argh.!!!!??

Howard Zinn: “Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders…and millions have been killed because of this obedience…Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves… (and) the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem.”

Yea that’s why the screen social media, they don’t want thinkers, they want obedient slaves who don’t think, just smart enough to push buttons. We the people are a thing of the past. Now we’re just numbers for the big people called corporations. I tell ya what is the most stressful is diagnosed intelligent surrounded by dumb mindless goons. Now that’s stressful.

And that should be taken as a compliment. It means you are awake to the corruption that is rampant in our government. “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” -Krishnamurti

why dont you ask the imposters posing as humans if indeed they are actually human, and get out the injection of truth syrum and see if they spill the beans that they are in fact from the planet marshmallow puff where gummi bears are used for petrol to power the sugar sucking mutants and expose them , let me know how you get on

When I was 13 I was diagnosed with a very very high IQ. I was told I was the brightest student in the school. I tell you this so I can tell you what happened next. I was invited by a teacher to be the head of the debating club at the school not long after. In the first debate, the subject was the Vietnam war, I said things that were against the common understanding of the issues. I did not know I could not be honest in debate. The end result was teachers, some of them not having me in their classes. I was sent to the guidance office. I told my parents and my father, an authoritarian, said I must have done something wrong. In those days if you failed one course you failed your year. I lost the year. The teacher who encouraged me to debate was fired. I spent half a semester in the guidance office. Sitting. Losing my year. Nobody would do anything to stop the abuse.

I can relate with u Robert. Anti-intellectualism is very prevalent. They make US appear like we have a problem. Always felt like a misfit. And had to change jobs and even change careers because of this.

This article is so full of misinformation I don’t know where to start. Oppositional defiant disorder is not a”new”diagnosis. It has been in literature for the better part of forty years. It is primarily a childhood disorder. There is no medication that is approved to treat this disorder and most psychiatrists understand this. This is not a disorder of non-conformity this is a disorder of a Patten of behaviors that perpetuate isolation and severe social consequences due to the individuals patterns of interacting. Get real information from educated sources. This kind of article is a disservice to mental illness and mental health providers.

People experiencing a spiritual breakthrough can also exhibit temporary symptoms that get them int the mental health system. Then they get misdiagnosed, drugged up and then categorized based on how they behave while on behaviour altering medication. Many of these people would be fine if supervised for a short time in a drug free environment. Some end up unbalanced for the rest of their lives because of the medication. It’s wrong.

They diagnosed my Son with this actually a psychiatrist did, medicate him or he will end up in jail, give him Ritalin, he is now a high school teacher, he does not think inside the so called box, who does, he was just a bored child because his brain was faster than everyone else, so it came out in clown behaviour. He will be a brilliant teacher. Who is normal?

Beth Wujek, did you read the other comments? they are AMAZING! Besides what you and they say? I would add, it really matters what source you read for real news! even well-known publications get it wrong….Snopes.com helps; however, this is just sensationlism. Sad part of it? I think the over medicating and over diagnosing is very real and I think it is very scary. The drugging people into normal and submissive happens (look at the elder abuse of such medications) but serious reporting would reflect the number who have true need of help, but then again if the medical people don’t have the ability to separate the two, how do we expect the news reporting to?

that’s right it begins with good mental health what you allow or don’t allow in your mind what side of the bed are you going to get up on today down or around because everyone talks to you in a of way that you don’t understand

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